2nd COVID-19 vaccine batch approved: Turkish president

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - The second batch of Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines have been approved for delivery to Turkey and may arrive by the weekend, Turkey's president announced Friday.

As infections continue to slow down in Turkey after the second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul that the next cabinet meeting would evaluate whether or not to reopen restaurants.

Mass vaccinations began in Turkey last week after the first batch of 3 million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech arrived in Turkey on Dec. 30.

So far, over 1 million people, including healthcare workers have been vaccinated against the virus across the country since the beginning of the campaign on Jan. 14.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and members of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board were administered the first dose of the vaccine, as was President Erdogan, to encourage public confidence in the jab.

The second dose will be administered 28 days after the first. Those who recovered from COVID-19 will not be vaccinated in four to six months following their recovery.

Since last month, Turkey has been imposing curfews as part of its efforts to curb the virus's spread.

As of Thursday, Turkey registered a total of 24,640 deaths from COVID-19, while over 2.29 million people have recovered from the disease. There have been over 2.41 million confirmed cases in the country.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 2.09 million lives in 192 countries and regions.

Over 97.59 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries now over 53.83 million, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of cases.